Modern societies are increasingly concerned with risk, often emphasizing individualistic conceptions of risk. However, the construction of risk is social and consequential. Risk orders theory interrogates consequences of risk discourse, as we struggle to live with our profound desire to avoid threats. This article theorizes the construction of three types of risks, collectively termed risk orders. First-order risks, those typically studied by risk scholars, are constructed claims about concrete threats to a physical body. However, constructions of first-order risks prompt additional, abstract risks for individuals and collectives. Therefore, we propose that second-order and third-order risks arise in the shadow of first-order risks. Second-order risks exist when we perceive an individual as insufficiently avoiding first-order risks. These include threats to our sense of goodness and character, termed moral risks, as well as threats to our relationships, termed social risks. Third-order risks are threats to collectives' agency and imagination. Human communication produces and reproduces a multitude of risks, not simply concrete first-order risks. The risks we construct actualize consequential social worlds that deeply affect our identity, social relations, and cultural imagination. This article posits risk orders theory and applies it to infant feeding discourse.

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Discourses about health risks can have major implications for individuals and cultures. In this article, we use risk orders theory to examine nurses' perceptions of patient safety risk in Obstetrics departments of US hospitals. According to risk orders theory, risk discourses can create social worlds that have the capacity to threaten individuals' social bonds, identity and moral character, and the imaginative potential of entire cultures. Risk orders theory proposes three orders of risk. First-order risks are constructed from claims about tangible dangers that individuals believe result from their actions or inactions. Second-order risks are threats experienced by individuals because of communication about first-order risk, including threats to social relationships or social risks, and threats to the sense of moral character or moral risk. Third-order risks are threats to collective agency and imagination underpinning shared culture. In this article, we draw on data from a survey of obstetric nurses who attended the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses conference in 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. We use a qualitative thematic analysis of 131 obstetrics nurses' narrative responses on a critical incident survey to refine theoretical constructs of risk orders theory. We identified a third type of second-order risk, identity risks, or threats to the sense of self. We also identified three types of third-order risks: agencyconstraining risks threaten members of a culture's ability to act freely; agentconstraining risks threaten cultural members' ability to define themselves freely; double-binding risks threaten their ability to make choices freely. We found that second-order and third-order risks did threaten some obstetrics nurses' social bonds, identity as a nurse, moral character and imaginative potential.

We advance a new theoretical approach for interpreting health communication from an embodied, intersubjective perspective. We propose individuals experience the world as bodied beings and must make sense of their embodied experiences by managing meanings of who they are in the world (being), the actions they perform (doing), and who they want to become (directed becoming). We call this theory managing meanings of embodied experiences (MMEE). Guided by the philosophies of phenomenology, pragmatism, and feminism, we provide a three-fold framework for exploring individuals' management of health meanings during interactions with others in society. The first layer-being-demonstrates a mutually constituting, intersubjective presence with others, whereby we attend to our own and another's embodied expressions accomplished communicatively. The second layer-doing-appreciates experiences directed by personal and social values both perceived and conceived during the unfolding of coordinated communicative events. The third layer-directed becoming-highlights our ability to mindfully direct changes to our identity and actions through critical reflection; it is the transformative potential of our reflective synthesis of being and doing.

Although developmental delays are common in the United States, only about one third of developmental delays are identified before a child enters school. As challenging as use of developmental screening is on a national basis, the Appalachian region faces extreme lack of screening, diagnosis, and treatment for developmental delay. Local health care providers attribute this lack to poor parent understanding and have called for communication interventions to educate caregivers. This investigation sought to understand the antecedents of Appalachian caregivers' intentions to access developmental screening and services for their children as formative research for a communication-based intervention. The investigation was grounded by the health belief model. Surveys completed by 366 caregivers were used to model antecedents to behavioral intention. Perceived severity, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy were found to be the strongest predictors of intention to access developmental screening. Implications for a communication-based intervention are provided.